Senior Bombers tell James Hird to put aside anger

Essendon’s senior players have asked James Hird to put aside his personal angst and allow the Bombers to focus on the 2014 season without provoking reminders of the events which led to Hird’s and the club’s fall from grace.

It is understood the message was communicated to Hird in recent days via the leadership group and club captain Jobe Watson.

While Watson and the senior players stressed they remained fully supportive of Hird returning to coach next season, it was pointed out that recent outbursts such as Tania Hird’s could prove detrimental to the team’s fortunes.

That players’ message was reiterated to Hird on Wednesday when he met the Essendon board via a video link-up in the home of club chairman Paul Little. In a robust and occasionally emotional exchange several directors also addressed Hird’s apparent failure to accept that he had been culpable in his involvement in the club’s 2011-12 drugs program.

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Hird was delivered what is understood to have been a final warning to put aside his bitterness for the sake of the club and his own wellbeing. New protocols were outlined to both Hirds to prevent them from breaking the suspended coach’s employment agreement which saw him paid in advance for 2014, largely funded to undertake four months’ study abroad and re-signed as coach until the end of 2016.

The outlying members of the Hird camp, who in recent weeks have made so-called ''unhelpful'' comments regarding Hird’s plight and the AFL’s various wrongdoings, did not fall under these protocols although Hird undertook to employ his best endeavours to prevent more outbursts.

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Those members include Hird’s father Allan, who on Sunday described AFL chief Andrew Demetriou as a bully, his occasional media adviser Ian Hanke, Queen’s Counsel Julian Burnside and several other legal advisers.

Little, who reminded Hird again that he was no good to the Essendon players as their coach if he could not put aside his bitterness, is understood to have requested that Hird prepare to make a genuine public show of contrition in the coming months.

While the view of the board is that a public statement of regret now would seem forced, the Bombers directors remained hopeful that Hird had made some progress in understanding that as senior coach he must accept some responsibility for the shambolic practices which took place under his watch.

The three-hour board meeting began at 10am and also saw Tania Hird separately meet Little and club directors. Fairfax Media believes it was the second time Mrs Hird has met Little in recent days, with the Bombers chairman determined to make the suspended coach’s wife understand the depth of the harm her interview on the ABC's 7.30 had inflicted on the club’s rebuilding.

The verdict of Wednesday’s board meeting was that Tania Hird had been motivated by anger at perceived injustices inflicted upon her husband. She appeared to have been unprepared for the fall-out regarding the club and team on the eve of its season after being expelled from the finals last year.

While the board meeting broke up with directors hopeful some closure with the Hirds had been achieved, any final verdict on Hird’s future cannot come until the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority completes its report into the club.

The issue of the falling out between the Hird and Evans families was not addressed with Hird on Wednesday. In the ABC interview, Tania Hird accused David Evans of instructing Hird to withhold information from ASADA regarding Demetriou. Evans was the Essendon chairman who lured Hird back to the club as an untried senior coach.

Evans and his family are long-time benefactors of the club and a room at the new Tullamarine facility is named in their honour. However the close friendship between Evans, whose father also presided over Essendon and chaired the AFL Commission until his death in 2007, and Hird appears finished.

Despite David Evans being a prime architect of the new home base and also a financial contributor, he has to date resisted overtures to visit the completed facility and attempts by the club to bring Hird and Evans together have proved fruitless.